Science Talk:The Quantum Revolution: Experimenters Were Also on the Barricades

Allan Franklin
Department of Physics
University of Colorado

The names most associated with the history of quantum mechanics are Planck, Einstein, Bohr, Schrodinger, Heisenberg, and Pauli. They are all theoretical physicists. Yet experiment also played an important role. In this talk I will offer credit to some of them. I will discuss Millikan’s measurement of Planck’s constant. I will also discuss the work of William Wilson, which is never mentioned in physics textbooks, but is quite important.

Allan Franklin is professor of physics emeritus at the University of Colorado. He began his career as an experimental high-energy physicist and later changed his research area to history and philosophy of science, particularly on the roles of experiment. In 2016, Franklin received the Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics from the American Physical Society. He is the author of fifteen books including recently Shifting Standards: Experiments in Particle Physics in the Twentieth Century, What Makes a Good Experiment?: Reasons and Roles in Science, and Is It the Same Result? Replication in Physics.

Doors Open at 4:30pm. Start Time 5:00pm.